by Safa Shaqsy
“Yes” I started, “I’m sorry Kraig, we should have told you sooner. The truth is, I’m…”
“Nathalie?” the receptionist called, interrupting me. “You’re next.” Kraig glared at me and moved out of the way to reveal the double doors. I took a deep breath, and trained my brain to believe that what I did was right, in order to protect the city. I was about to walk to the double doors when Andie grabbed my wrist, stopping me on my tracks and I felt his warm breath while he whispered in my ears.
“Don’t forget what I’ve told you about.” I nodded in understanding and walked to the double doors. The doors slid open when bright light almost blinded me on my way to the interrogation room. I squinted my eyes and blinked a few times and four figures appeared. They sat behind a big table shaped like a horseshoe, examining me with their eyes and reading from their screens. Suddenly my body felt hot and I swallowed hard.
“Nathalie Jefferson?” one woman called.
“Yes,” I gulped.
She gestured her hand to one seat in the middle of the horseshoe table. I walked toward it and sat carefully not to look too suspicious or nervous. They all checked their screens for seconds then they gave me their full attention. They kept gazing at me and it made me feel like I was naked and exposed.
“You were sent on a mission yesterday with team five?” another lady asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Why was your team sent on a mission with them?” a man asked.
“Because we hadn’t done well in our previous missions, so Gale thought we needed help,” I replied. They all nodded and exchanged interested looks with one another. At that moment, my heart was beating so roughly in my rib cage. I was about to pass out, and my hands were trembling.
“Well it’s not because we were weak or distracted, but we had some challenges with aliens in our earlier mission.” I explained with trembling voice and tried to sit straight as if none of them scared me.
They talked among themselves and another man talked, “So you’re saying that it wasn’t your team’s fault for not doing your job right?” Was that a tricky question? If I said yes, they would say I was blaming the institute and Gale and if I said no, I’d be blaming my team. So I stuttered, “I…I…I don’t know.”
The man looked offended by my answer, “You don’t know?” “I don’t think it’s the right question for me to answer,” I muttered. Just when I thought that I could handle this interrogation, I ended up messing
everything up.
One woman asked, “What are you afraid of? Were you going to lie to us?”
I turned to the red-haired woman, “No,” I snapped and my voice was high.
She swung her body back and shook her head, shocked by my sudden outburst. “This is an interrogation room, not a barn,” the other woman firmly said and touched her dark hair that was neatly combed back into a side bun as if she was making sure that she looked neat.
“Sorry,” I said, calmly this time and looked down at my shaking hands in my lap. One was still bandaged from Star’s bite. I clutched them together to control the shakiness and looked up at the evaluators.
“Nathalie Jefferson, daughter of Will and Debra Jefferson. You live in a small house that your parents used to own, studied in Kulaci Soplea in the city, and graduated with a diploma. After your parents’ unfortunate death, you applied to the Alien Busters Institute and got a job as an alien buster. Just like your parents,” the man with the suit said, reading from his screen and he continued, “your parents were suspected of dealing with aliens in private and doing illegal experiments with them. On the other hand, we dropped that offense, because we appreciated their courage and their versed skills in killing aliens and accomplishing their missions,” he finally stopped and lifted his eyes to mine. “Are you, Nathalie Jefferson involved in any kind of suspicious acts?” he asked.
I tried to control my anger with clutched fists to stop myself from strangling him. They planned for this; they knew that this was coming. That’s why Gale was so sure about this interrogation that he didn’t even try to protect us from this. He wanted us to get in trouble, because he suspected my going the same route my parents went. I couldn’t hold my head from shaking and I snickered in front of the evaluators, because it was just ridiculous.
“Excuse me. Do you think this is funny?” another male evaluator asked. “No. Not at all. In fact, I think it’s dumb,” I bashed, “Gale wanted this to happen. I know you’re all happy about this.”
They all studied my words, my face and body posture with fury. Their faces twisted with loathing, hatred, and pity.
“If I were you, I’d be careful,” the other male evaluator warned.
“I don’t care,” I shouted, “because I know I’ll be called guilty anyways.” “If you treat us with disrespect one more time, you’ll be sent to jail. Understand?” the red-haired woman scolded.
That shut me up. “On the day of the mission… you and your other team member talked about alien eggs. Is that right?” an evaluator said.
“Yes” I answered.
He shook his head and said, “Why did you stop him from telling us about the plan?” I wiped my palms over my lap and watched the cameras that were placed in front of every evaluator that were recording me, suspecting myself and my thoughts. I knew they were watching my every move and every word I was saying. I did that because it was the right thing to do.
“Yes, because if you damaged those eggs, aliens would take revenge and attack the city,” I calmly replied.
They leaned closer with interest, nodded to each other and that made me feel awful, like I was a lab rat. I hated the way they studied my face, my body posture, like I was some kind of a bazar species. I felt goose bumps on my skin, like crawling insects trying to dig into my flesh. These kinds of interrogations didn’t exist before Dean Clarke became president. Dean Clarke became our president three years ago, and when he saw how much betrayal and injustice was happening in the institute, he created strict rules for alien busters to follow. Dean feared that his citizens would try and rebel against those rules, so he made punitive measures for the ones who break them.
Dean was always in contact with my parents because they were the best alien busters out there. They had many medals for their astuteness and strength, the ones they hung on their bedroom walls. Sometimes they would invite him for dinners in our house and Dean would talk about how important it was to maintain the city and protect it from aliens. I remember his confident posture when he sat at the table with my mom, dad and I. Mom would always seem tense around Dean, but my dad loved their conversations about aliens. I feared that my plan would fail, that they’d call me guilty and punish me for what I’ve done. If they did, I might talk to Dean, maybe he will make an exception for me.
The evaluators pressed a few buttons on their screens and the red-haired woman spoke, “That is a legitimate reason, but why didn’t you at least inform us about that?”
Because I was afraid that it would look like I was a sympathizer, an alien lover, and the whole city would despise me. Because if they labeled me a sympathizer, they’d investigate my house and find Star and we’d both get into trouble. Only Andie and I knew about Star and no one else should know. No one. Even if it meant fighting for Star, I’ll do it.
“I was afraid that you’d proceed with the plan anyway. It was a good decision.” I convinced them with a racing heart and convinced myself as well.
“Do you still live in your parents’ house?” the bald man asked. “Yes,” I replied, I knew it was because of the investigation; they needed to know my location. Does that mean I’m guilty? I asked myself.
“Do you have pets?” the other lady asked.
“No. Just me.” I said. They returned their focus on their screens. The dark-hair lady said, “Thank you for your time Nathalie. You and your team will not participate in any mission for a week. We’ll let you know of the results next week. Have a good day,” and she smiled politely.
My heart re
turned to its normal beat. I got up from my chair, nodded to them and left the interrogation room to meet Kraig and Andie who were sitting right outside the doors. When I got closer to them, they both got up and Kraig asked:
“So, how did it go?”
“I was dreading it. But I managed to answer their questions.” “Lie detectors?” Andie asked.
I shook my head, “Not yet.”
His shoulders dropped and he sighed from relief. “Anderson. You’re next.” The receptionist called. Andie shrugged to us and entered the double doors.
Chapter Ten
Dreams can be big misleads, though humans suspect reality and prefer to live in unrealistic worlds. We waited for half an hour until Andie got out of the interrogation room. Kraig and I got up from our chairs. I was worried that he messed up his part of the plan. I just felt that something went wrong in there.
“How did it go?” I asked. He slicked back his dark hair with his hand and said, “I was a little tense, but I’ve made it. Next week are the results. But we’re suspended though.”
Kraig nodded and patted Andie’s shoulder, “Let’s go home,” Kraig said.
We walked down the hallway. Suddenly, I heard someone’s faint voice calling me.
“Nathalie?” a female’s voice said behind one ajar door. I stopped to look and see professor Suzanne peering from her office door and beckoning for me. I got in her office as she closed the door behind her. She went to sit behind her desk. I sat on the chair and looked at the framed pictures on her desk on which there were my parents and Suzanne in some kind of a lab together. They wore white lab coats and each carried a clipboard in their hands. Behind them, there were aliens kept in cages. Suzanne smiled at me when she saw me looking at the pictures.
“We used to experiment together,” she said and inhaled. “We were close friends. I liked being around them. They had that great karma that made everyone around them just adore them.”
That made me smile. She was right; they were the kind of people who everyone in the city looked up to. My parents had mentioned Suzanne a couple of times that they used to work with her in the institute labs. All the experiments were about different species of aliens to discover and to prove to everyone what aliens were capable of.
Though Dean didn’t like the experiments that my parents were doing, so he ordered Gale to stop them. That upset my dad and I remember him talking about meeting Gale to convince him that they needed those experiments to identify aliens’ weaknesses for the alien busters to easily defeat the aliens in their weakest spot. Gale couldn’t allow them to do that when he talked to my dad about it, saying that it was Dean’s orders to stop the experiments. However, everyone knew the truth about Gale’s animosity towards aliens. He would have never approved anything against his values, just like the rest of the Adkad City citizens.
“Yes, they were,” I answered. Her smile deepened and she stared at my face, “You look just like your mother, but you have your father’s eyes,” she admitted.
“So, you know about their experiments?” I asked. She nodded, “Yes. We used to experiment on aliens together,” she replied and clutched her hands on top of the desk, “In fact, they talked a lot about you, that’s why I already know you. We worked together for years to discover aliens’ abilities and to prove that they’re more than anyone thinks they are.”
If she knew about aliens that much, maybe she will tell me about their discoveries and breakthroughs. I should ask her about the alien claw marks I saw in my earlier mission. Maybe she will tell me about it. I don’t have any proof to show it to her, but I could ask for the files about the aliens they discovered together. “Do you have any files you kept for your experiments?” I asked.
“Yes, we do have recorded documents that we kept in the cabinet,” she said. “But it’s confidential and we don’t share it with anyone.”
“Can’t you make an exception?” I asked. She turned to look at the top corner of the wall, where the camera was placed, and turned to look at me, “We only share the documents when it’s necessary and only to qualified people,” she stated.
I got her. They were watching us with those cameras that were placed in her office walls. Then why did she call me to her office, if we couldn’t talk privately? What was she trying to tell me? I glimpsed at the cameras and turned to her, and said, “I understand.”
“But if you need any kind of help, I’m here to assist you,” she said, “I mean anything unordinary, just let me know.”
Was she referring to Star? But how did she know I was keeping him with me? “Thanks professor Suzanne,” I said.
“Anytime, Nathalie,” she said. I got up and walked out of her office. While I was walking my way to the exit, I was thinking about what she told me. Anything unordinary, she said. Can I trust her with my secret? I only knew her for a few minutes, why would I trust her? My mom used to tell me not to trust anyone in the institute, in fact the whole city. Everyone is against sympathizers and I needed to be careful about that. When I exited the institute, Kraig and Andie were already sitting in the car. Kraig was in the driver’s seat, so I got in the passenger seat next to him.
“What took you so long?” Kraig asked.
“I just had a chat with professor Suzanne,” I said. “You that close?” he asked.
“No. We had a conversation about my parents. That’s all,” I responded.
He pursed his lips and said, “Okay,” and drove on. Kraig stopped the car on the side street, beside my house. I got out of the car and observed the pedestrians walking along the neat modern houses. The hologram screens filled the sky with news, advertisements and information about our city. I got inside my house to find Star sitting by the door.
I noticed he had gotten taller by two inches and his arms and legs grew longer and more muscular. His claws were thicker and longer. I crouched down and patted his head, “Hey, Star. What have you been up to?” I asked sweetly.
Star made weird noises, like a grown up alien would do and sniffed my bandaged hand. “Don’t worry about my hand. It’s healing, see,” I comforted him and started unwrapping the bandage from my hand to see the scar that Star left on it. The bleeding stopped and the pain subsided, but my skin was red around the bite marks. I got up and walked to sit on the sofa. Star trailed me and got up to my lap, “It was a long day. I hope we won’t be in trouble,” I said to Star.
I activated the screen to play one of my parents’ lecture video. I watched it until my dad said, “If you only believed,” and closed my eyes, started drifting to another world. A world where aliens and humans live together peacefully. A world where there are no threats, no fear. A peaceful world. I opened my eyes to darkness. The living room was dark and Star wasn’t on my lap.
“Star?” I called after him and got up from the sofa, carefully not to step on Star if he was down on the floor.
Every room was dark and I continued to enter one room after another, looking for him, but failed to find him anywhere in the house. On my way to the dark hallway to the garage, which extended and got darker with every step.
“Star?” I called. Then there was light at the end of the corridor, when I got in the bright room. Three figures stood around a lab table. When I got closer, I saw the two faces I knew all my life. My parents and professor Suzanne. They looked like they were discussing something in the lab, not noticing my presence.
“Mom? Dad?” I called with teary eyes. The lab got dark again, and then I was left alone. I woke up with panic to find Star sleeping on my lap and the TV screen was on, but blank. Thank God it was just a nightmare. I took a deep breath and wiped the sweat on my forehead with the back of my hand. The video was on again, but this time my dad’s face was recorded. He looked tense about something. “Nathalie, if you’re watching this, I want you to know that…” he whispered and looked at the other direction then got back to the camera, hesitating “I hid the files somewhere in the institute. However, the other important files are in the house. You know where to find it and G
ale shouldn’t know about them, neither should Dean. They’ve found out that we were betraying them, and I….” he exhaled, “I’m scared that they’ll do something to us. If anything happens to us, we love you.” Then the screen went off. I forgot that I was holding my breath then I exhaled.
“They hid the files in here?” I muttered to myself. I placed Star on the sofa and got up in a rush. I walked to my parents’ bedroom. Their bedroom was neat and dusty, because I never entered the bedroom after their death. It was too painful for me. I kneeled down and looked in the bedside table drawers, tossing a few objects on the ground. Flash light. Tooth pick. Books. They can’t hide files in a book. But I opened the books anyways and shook them in the air to check if anything came out of it. Maybe a device that used to store files in them. Nothing. I got up and went to the dresser where my mom’s jewelry was placed. I opened the jewelry boxes and checked one item after another. I scattered them on the dresser table, “Crap” I cursed. I picked up one particular jewelry. A ring with a green emerald stone on top. The stone was a bit larger for the ring. Maybe that was the file hidden inside the ring. I tried to press the top to see if anything was moving in the piece of ring. The top popped upward and became loose. I removed the top gem from the claw and looked inside where a chip was hidden. I picked up the chip and went to the living room and inserted in the TV projector to watch the video. My mom’s face showed up in the video, looking directly to the camera.
“Hello. My name is Debra Jefferson and I work in the Alien Busters Institute. We have been researching about different species of aliens as well as experimenting on them in the institute’s labs. What we have found was extraordinary. Every alien has its weaknesses and powers. The findings were recorded and kept safe in the institute, but we are afraid that our findings will be sabotaged by alien haters,” she explained. “Please, whoever is watching this video, have the will to fight against them and don’t take our findings for granted. For the reason that these findings will alter human’s and alien’s interactions with each other for good. I’ll leave you now to decide. Will you go with the tide, or go against it? It’s your choice.”